Deeptech startup Chara raises $4.75 million in funding led by Exfinity Venture Partners
- ByStartupStory | January 17, 2023
Chara, a Bengaluru-based maker of electric motors for electric vehicles (EV), has raised $4.75 million in a pre-series A round of funding led by Exfinity Venture Partners.
Bi capital, a venture arm of Bitexco, and Log9 Materials also participated in the funding round. Existing investors Kalaari Capital and cite.co participated in the round as well.
The technology firm is developing a scalable, cloud-controlled, and rare-earth-free platform for designing, manufacturing, and deploying electric motors for EVs and other applications. Chara’s unique Drive Control Firmware is the motor controllers’ brain.
Bhaktha Keshavachar, Founder and CEO of Chara Technologies said, “We’re working towards the current motor tech on its head, doing away with inefficient and rare-earth-dependent practices. We are building cost effective and intelligent motors and controllers for EV, HVAC and other industries. We are very excited to work with Exfinity, BigCapital, Log9, Kalaari, and CIIE to bring cutting-edge technology to OEMs in India and in the future to the world.”
According to the company, Chara has previously developed motors for 2-wheelers (hub and Mid-mount), 3- and 4-wheel light commercial vehicles, as well as various use cases.
It further stated that later this year, production of motors and the corresponding controllers is anticipated to begin.
The company’s current motor lineup spans the voltage range of 48 V to 400 V and ranges in power from fractional kW to tens of kW. For these inventions, it has filed patents in the areas of motor design, controller design, and control algorithm.
Chinnu Senthilkumar, Managing Partner at Exfinity said, “To buld SRM/Hybrid version of SRM Motors, an interdisciplinary team with backgrounds in electro-mechanical, power electronics and software domains is a must. We found that the Chara founding team is exemplary in this regard. Exfinity strongly believes that the EVE story for South Asia and similar markets has to be contextualized and not replicated from the US and European markets. Chara Motors is also a great example for Atmanirbhar Bharat as it delinks the permanent magnet supply chain dependency from China and other countries.”
Exfinity Venture led a series A round of fundraising for Log9 Materials over four years ago, during which the recipient raised $3.5 million.
After EV sales hit a record high in 2022, industry stakeholders are bullish about 2023. Late in the year, India saw EV sales reach about a million units, a 300% increase from the previous year.
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